Johnny Diesel and the Injectors – S/T (Release Year – 1989)

I must admit that I never heard of Johnny Diesel and the Injectors until 2008. After I read about these guys, I felt compelled to seek out their 1989 self titled CD to see what they were all about.

I expected these guys to be a simple pub rock band in the vein of AC/DC. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Johnny Diesel and the Injectors has a sound that probably has more in common with John Mellancamp than with AC/DC. Johnny Diesel has a pretty good voice. His vocals have a slight bit of rasp to them. This really helps drive the harder rocking tunes on this disc.

There aren’t too many rock bands employing a saxophone player in today’s music. I love the saxaphone, and I think it adds a lot of character to the music on this disc. It often takes the emphasis off of the lead guitar, and even though Johnny Diesel is a solid guitar player, Bernie Bremond might be a better sax player.

There are several good songs on this disc including “Lookin For Love”, “Cry In Shame”, “Soul Revival”, “Don’t Need Love”. I really don’t think there is a bad song on this disc.

Something that surprised me about Johnny Diesel was the fact that there were several music videos released for this album (Check them out below). I don’t recall seeing any of these on MTV back when the station played videos. It is a real shame too. This album could have been huge in the United States, if was given a little bit of support.

You can practically steal this disc off of Amazon.com. If you are looking for something different to enhance your playlist, you ought to give Johnny Diesel & The Injectors a look. This disc was a nice surprise for me. I have enjoyed this disc quite a bit, and I think a bunch of you will to.

Related

Comments

Diesel (Mark Lizotte) is still recording and touring, mostly within Australia. It’s a real pity that the rest of the world does not know what a brilliant mulit-faceted musician, singer/songwriter this man is. A world class act.
He’s just got a recent album out, ‘Let It Fly’. If you ever travel to Australia, he’s a must-see. He can play and sing it all…rock/blues/soul.
Don’t make the mistake by judging a book by it’s cover (videos hardly indicate his talent, live performances)….that’s the 80s for you.
One of the very underrated talents this world has hardly seen.

Johnny Diesel aka Mark Lizotte was and still is a great talent who probably never fully got the recognition he deserved. He’s still active in the Australian rock scene though mostly working behind the scenes these days as a collaborating musician.
Cheers!